Incidents caused by improperly and/or otherwise inaccurately located utility lines have resulted in loss of human life as well as costly damage to infrastructure. In a traditional utility line locating operation (also referred to simply as a “locate”), a user moves about an area with a utility locator device in hand to determine the location of one or more buried utility or utilities such as buried pipes, wires, or other conductors. Locators are continuously evolving to improve their ability to locate utilities under the ground or in other hidden areas. This locating is important for maintaining infrastructure as well as protecting human life during excavation.
As utility locators have evolved and increased in performance, the complexity of associated locating systems, devices, and methods has also increased. In many applications it may be ideal and/or even necessary for one or more utility locators to be used in a self-supported stationary and upright position, thereby allowing a user the freedom to work on other facets of a utility locating operation, such as collecting related data, controlling utility transmitter operation, interacting with a notebook computer, tablet device, smartphone, and the like.
In some applications, a user may further be required to continually transition between periods of positioning a utility locator device in a stationary self-supported upright orientation and carrying the utility locator device about the locate area. In other applications, such as in a traditional utility line locate operation, a user may mainly carry a utility locator throughout the entire locate operation while moving it through the air just above the ground.
Most existing utility locator devices are human supported and require a user to perform the inconvenient task of holding the utility locator device still and upright above the ground for lengthy periods of time during a locate operation. Some utility locator devices are configured to self-stand in an upright position, but they do so by permanently fixed mechanisms that are bulky and/or otherwise not ideal to be carried about during applications such as traditional line locate operations. Other existing utility locators configured to self-stand rely upon mechanisms that, when deployed, may be intrusive or bulky, thus preventing a user from safely carrying out tasks in order to complete the locate operation. Furthermore, many such self-supporting devices are configured to key to and/or otherwise secure to and function with utility locators have non-round masts, thus preventing their use with utility locators with round masts.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to address the above-described as well as other problems.